This was an incident that occurred during my internship in an
amusement park back in 2014. In order to protect the interests of the guest, I
will refer to him as “Guest” and my colleague as “Junior”.
Two boat rides are offered in this amusement park, however, one
of them has strict requirements of height and health conditions due to the
nature of the ride. I was tasked to train Junior on the job as it was his
second day at work.
In the afternoon, there was a commotion which involved
Junior. It turned out that Guest had a toddler with him and was unable to
board the ride, thus the unhappiness. As I tried to intervene, Guest shouted at
me without giving me a chance to explain. Junior then engaged in a heated
argument with Guest while I tried to pacify both parties as it was
unprofessional of Junior as he was in uniform. Guest then
demanded for both our names as he wanted to lodge a complaint against
us. With my patience running thin, I replied him curtly before proceeding
to serve other guests.
What could have been done better to prevent the situation from
escalating?
198 words.
Hi Jovin,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your incident. Based on your story, one advice or solution I could give is that you and your colleague have to learn the importance of developing great communication skills with your guests.
Communication is key when handling guests. You need to inform your colleague to speak clearly and effectively with the guests and explained to them the procedures and policies of the amusement park so that the guests can walk away without any questions. Having done that, will lead you or your colleague no room for error.
However you must also show empathy in this situation, giving the large crowd, the guest might be frustrated with the wait. The guests need to know that you understand what their issues is and you have try your best to correct it. Even though things are just beyond your control due to the safety issues and age requirement. You just have to apologise and carry on from there.
Hi Jovin!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about your interpersonal communication problem. I understand that it was very busy at that time which might have caused Junior and you to react in such a way. In my opinion, I think that effective communication is extremely important to prevent such incidents from occurring.
In this case, it is wrong for Junior to start a heated argument with Guest as he is representing his company. One of the ways where you could try to ease the situation is to let Junior know that it is not right and set a good example by showing him the right way to deal with such customers. It is good to also put yourself in the shoes of the customer and try to understand where is he coming from. He might have queued for really long and could have felt annoyed that he is unable to ride the ride after the long waiting time.
If the customer is still unsatisfied, you could bring the guest over to your manager to talk it out instead of replying to him curtly.
Overall, it is a really interesting read! Hope my suggestions would help you in finding the right way to solve the problem!
Katrina